In certain corners of the globe you'll find the strangest of military cemeteries  places filled not with the bodies of fallen troops but littered with the carcasses of abandoned tanks. These once-formidable weapons of war no longer strike fear into the hearts of opposing forces; their days of rolling inexorably onwards on the teeth of steel tracks are over. Now, the armor of these behemoths is rusting and corroded, their hatches all but sealed from lack of use, and their controls never again to be manned by commanders in battle.

WWII tank graveyard in overgrowth near an abandoned Russian military base

If looking down the barrel of a gun is an unpleasant experience, then staring into the gigantic cylinder of a tanks cannon must surely magnify the sense of menace tenfold  especially if there is any uncertainty as to whether the weapon is still able to fire its deadly projectile. Braving heat, cacti and other hazards, the urban explorers whose images we have collected have taken some amazing shots of tank graveyards from around the world.

The 60s slogan of make love not war instantly springs to mind when looking at this cross-section of vehicular cemeteries, located everywhere from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Laos, to Germany, Kuwait and Iraq. Once a war is over, decommissioned and defunct tanks are often simply left to rust and rot. Wrecked or simply forsaken, they stand as sinister reminders of more turbulent times.

Be sure to visit the General George S. Patton Memorial Museum if you’re ever between LA & Phoenix. The Museum was established to honor the late General George S. Patton and the thousands of men who served with him at the Desert Training Center and overseas. The museum is located off Interstate 10, about 30 miles east of Indio at Chiriaco Summit, which was the entrance to Camp Young, command post for the Desert Training Center during World War II. There’s a yard full of old tanks, slowly rusting away like the ones shown here.

Seems like a lot of scrap steel waiting to be smelted. Are they too far out in the boonies for cost-effective shipping?
Maybe, turn the Chinese or Japanese loose and they’d have the place cleaned out in no time.

Old story I read years ago: The British still keep the HMS Prince of Wales in commission (Sunk off Malaya in ‘41 with a great loss of life). (Maybe the same with the Repulse.) I think it is once a year they send a diver down to replace the Union Jack “flying” from it’s mast. Before they started this ritual, back when the Japanese were going EVERYWHERE, cleaning up the leftover scrap, the Japanese went after the POW and when the Brits got their back up, the Japanese, in effect, said, “Wha? Wha?” as if they couldn’t make the connection between a memorial and scrap.

Well I kicked the tire and then got in the seat And set on a petrified apple core And found a bunch of field mice livin' in the glove compartment He says "her shaft is bent and the rear end leaks You can fix 'er quick with an oily rag Use a nail to start her, I lost the key Don't pay no mind to that whirin' sound She'll use a little oil, but outside of that she's cherry."

8
posted on 02/26/2012 4:57:11 PM PST
by Blogatron
(Brought to you by The American Frog Council; 'Frog - The other green meat')

“I had NO idea that there was a museum dedicated to General Patton. This place may be about an hour or so away from me here in Temecula, CA”

I have been there many times. My name is on one of the bricks for making a donation to the General Patton museum. I have spent many days exploring all the camps in the Desert Training Center. Going to Camp visit Camp Bouse in Arizona in a couple of months. One of the few I have not been to.

There is the “Official” George S Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky. It is loaded with a bunch of his well known belongings such as his pistols, his cavalry uniform, his command car which he had his accident and a ton of armored vehicles including some early WWI tanks, all free admittance. Cool stuff!It’s a great museum.

Good post. Reminds me of when I drove by TACOM, in Warren, MI. every day on my way to work at Chrysler. BTW, the Sherman tank was built by Chrysler, and the modern day tanks are built by General Dynamics, in and around Sterling Heights, MI. They didn’t call Detroit the arsenal of democracy for nothing. I guess it’s a pride thing, as in “you want to mess with us? Bring it on ‘cause we build all of the best bad-ass toys to take you out”.

What are the old rusting carcasses of Russian tanks doing in Laos? Well, where theres a tank, there was a war. Laos got dragged into the Vietnam War (1955- 1975) and paid dearly for it. A significant portion of the war was fought on Laotian territory, and Laos is actually reckoned to be most bombed nation on Earth. A fact thats hard to fathom, reported by The Guardian, is that Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bombload every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. Truly a statistic that quantifies the utter madness of the conflict.

This is the tagline from one of the photos referencing the tank graveyard in Laos. If my math is correct, this would total 11,340 B-52 sorties. Since, there were only 2,500 B-52 sorties flown in support of the siege at Khe Sahn I am absolutely astounded at this assertion. Any of you Vietnam vets want to vouch or question the statement above?

I was attending school in Aberdeen Proving Grounds Md where the avenue leading to the main gate is a divided highway and at the time in the median there was the “Mile of Tanks” of U.S. armored vehicles from several wars and then on main post there was a huge yard of mostly WWII German vehicles and 88mm guns and tanks.

The APG post museum had a small arms collection to die for. Then the curator informed me that what was displayed represented about one fifth of the total on hand. Geez!

The Patton Museum is impressive now but in 1977 I got to handle a bunch of machine guns in the arms room. It’s eerie to look at the sedan in which Patton was mortally injured. Look closely underneath and the frame is still bent.

Seeing Patton’s revolvers (the Colt SAA and the S&W .357) is almost a religious experience.

29
posted on 02/26/2012 7:19:15 PM PST
by elcid1970
("Deport all Muslims. Nuke Mecca now. Death to Islam means freedom for all mankind.")

A fact thats hard to fathom, reported by The Guardian, is that Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bombload every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. Truly a statistic that quantifies the utter madness of the conflict.

The only operating tank plant in the USA is the General Dynamics Land Systems plant in Lima, OH (Lima Army Tank Plant — LATP). They manufacture and overhaul the M1-series Abrams main battle tank. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lima_Army_Tank_Plant

Been to Lima, OH. at the Ford engine plant down there. Didn’t know they built tanks there. Seen a lot of tanks up around Sterling Heights though. Doesn’t matter where they’re built, it’s all heavy metal and all of us have a hand in it.

Been to Lima, OH. at the Ford engine plant down there. Didn’t know they built tanks there. Seen a lot of tanks up around Sterling Heights though. Doesn’t matter where they’re built, it’s all heavy metal and all of us have a hand in it.

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